Age: Approximately 230 - dating issues have made it impossible to pinpoint his precise birth year by Imperial Standard.

Chapter: Astral Jackals (see below)

Rank in Chapter: Apothecary-Sergeant

Personality/Quirks: Vifer is not possessed of any great tact. Its absence usually displays itself in remarks that run between the merely sarcastic and the outright scornful - depending on whether or not he gets on with the individual which the comment is directed at.However, he is also quick to praise good work performed by those who hold his favour - but those with whom he does not get along will have to perform near miracles before he will begrudge them such even the merest of such privileges.

Seldom uses contractions in speech. Typically keeps his face hidden (usually with a helmet, or when out of armour, a hood), especially if around someone he dislikes.

Possessed of a keen tactical intellect and initiative, it is possible that Vifer might make the rank of Company Captain one day - if he ever learns the art of holding his tongue.As it is, he is usually content in the role of Apothecary-Sergeant, although he is not entirely beyond forgetting, ignoring or amending orders if he feels he knows better.

Like most of the rest of his chapter, Vifer will fight using his bolter in close quarters, and has little interest in pistol weapons, seeing them inferior to the full sized weapon in almost every way. Additionally, he prefers straight magazines for his bolter, although he will not shun sickle magazines if they are the only available option.

Any Deeds of Note: Currently, the survival rate within Vifer's squad is amongst the best ever recorded by the chapter, a testament to the combination of his tactical and medical skills.

Vifer is given particular note in the Liber Honorous of the Astral Jackals twice.

The first is for the rescue of the 4th Company Chaplain from under heavy weapons fire and successfully managing to return him to the fight, in spite of (amongst other injuries) the hole a lance weapon had left clean through the Marine's chest, destroying a heart and one of his lungs in the process

The second is for the combined combat and tactical prowess he demonstrated against a strike force of Eldar, where his squad single handedly fended off the coordinated and prolonged assault of several Aspect Warrior squads upon an Imperial research facility, with Vifer personally defeating a Striking Scorpion Exarch in close quarters melee.

Notes: Vifer was assigned to the Deathwatch after an Ordos Xenos Inquisitor found his running commentary on the worsening events particularly unamusing. By way of patching up relationships with the Inquisitor, it was decided on Vifer's behalf that he would serve a tour with the Deathwatch. His assignment to Captain Demos Fannell is his first with the Deathwatch.

~~~~~

Astral Jackals.

The Astral Jackals were created from the geneseed of a number of chapters that can all trace their lienage back to the Imperial Fists, and were formed to defend against Eldar activity across a number of sectors. While there is a limit on how well they can defend against a foe that can use the webway, they have proven more effective than could have been hoped against both the Craftworld Eldar and their dark kin.

Normal colours: Mid-range green with white shoulder pads. Trim is in yellow, any armour markings are in black.

Combat Doctrine/Organisation: The Astral Jackals, like the majority of chapters that feed the Deathwatch, are largely codex in their Doctrine. However, they do deviate from absolutely pure adherence to the Codex:

- The chapter only ever fields a very limited number of heavier vehicles, preferring to rely on faster and more manoeuvrable (if less resilient) attack bike formations for their mobile firepower.- A large number of the chapter's battle brothers are trained in the use of the bolter in combat.- Given issues with geneseed (see below), a majority of the chapter's sergeants are trained and equipped as Apothecaries, in an attempt to maximise the recovery of intact progenoid glands.

Beliefs: The Astral Jackals are devoid of their progenitor chapter's tendency for penance by pain, and seek their penance in the act offering aid to others, whoever it might be who needs it. There are many stories of an Imperial Citizen who was aided out of the blue by one of these superhuman warriors in tasks that could only be perceived as utterly unimportant in any great scheme of things.

Geneseed: Like their progenitor chapter, they do not have the Betcher's Gland and Sus-an Membrane. However, within the last millennia, the percentage of the chapter's Omophagea implants that are stable for implantation has dropped significantly to around 7%. As a result, implantation of the organ ceased 783 years ago - the implants that do pass muster have been placed in storage since, and are relentlessly studied with the hope that the organ can be stabilised and be returned to the chapter.All other Geneseed is stable.

Relations with other Chapters: The Astral Jackals are known for taking absolutely painstaking care to ensure the purity of their own geneseed, and utterly refuse to implant any flawed organ.As a result of this, their relationships with chapters who will implant mutated geneseed is strained at best.

~~~~~

Well, what do you get if you take a rather tactless Apothecary who doesn't really want to be there in the first place from a chapter which has an enmity for those chapters who implant flawed geneseed, then put him under a Captain whose geneseed has given him vampiric fangs?I don't know exactly, but should be fun finding out...

(Another interesting question is who he might end up liking...)

And why's he called Vifer D'nim? Well, that comes from me messing with putting my full name into an anagram maker and realising the letters for the word "Deathwatch" were in there. The letters that got left over were a bit harder to make a sensible name out of, but it was fun anyway.

Here's hoping he and Ingaevon don't come to blows then, considering what the Blood Ravens are like about not even knowing where their gene-seed is from, never mind how pure it is meant to be. I personally maintain that they're a Dark Founding Chapter made using Thousand Sons gene-seed, but that's entirely speculative because we just don't know.

I like the idea of an inquisitor getting progressively more and more pissed off by the remarks made by Vifer. It suits the somewhat uptight, self-important characters some of them seem to have.

I think I've been doing it wrong on the vampire project, then -- the narrator's a Ciaphas Cain analogue that uses Space Marines for cover, his mentor is a Badass Grandma, and the account's being circulated by Ottakar freakin' Grant.

D'Nim is more occupied by the purity of the Geneseed than its provenance*, and the Blood Ravens' geneseed is largely stable - save for a minor mutation in the Catalepsean Node, and given that it doesn't result in physical abnormalities, D'Nim sees the chapter as relatively minor offenders.

*Not that he'd take Thousand Sons geneseed as a good thing, but as the origin of the Blood Raven's geneseed is limited to rumours at best and tests have proclaimed it pure, where it came from is not the greatest of Vifer's concerns.

But given that he's not exactly happy to be there in the first place, he's probably going to use any excuse to dislike those people around him. So nobody's likely to get an easy time to begin with, and certainly not those who he might perceive as flawed.

~~~~~

Anyway, I've only just noticed quite how many Imperial Fist derived Chapters we seem to have in this team. I might have used something different if I'd realised - but, in the end, I suppose there are only 9 loyalist progenitor legions, so it's not too improbable that several members in a team would be derived from the same one.

On the note of the Astral Jackals, they're a chapter I wrote under the 4th Edition Space Marine Codex.The downside was that the 5th Edition Codex meant that the chapter had to be scrapped again, because of the loss of the Chapter Traits rules. So, I wrote a new chapter for the models, and put the background for the Astral Jackals aside to use some other time.

And here they are again, although they've got a new colour scheme (approximate picture, courtesy of Dawn of War's Army Painter). They were originally a light blue livery - slightly lighter than the Ultramarines.

Congratulations. Laran just found himself a new best friend in Ingaevon.

The Prophets of Hatred have a good relationship with orks since they fought for a long time with Legio Destructor and picked up a few of its bad habits. The Prophets consider all orks as Grod and many ork tribes feel likewise about the Prophets whose attitude towards war is markedly orky.

As for Laran, the last time he fought orks he has the strangest feeling he died...

Congratulations. Laran just found himself a new best friend in Ingaevon.

The Prophets of Hatred have a good relationship with orks since they fought for a long time with Legio Destructor and picked up a few of its bad habits. The Prophets consider all orks as Grod and many ork tribes feel likewise about the Prophets whose attitude towards war is markedly orky.

what is this I don't even

A bunch of religious Emperor-bothering fanatics having a good relationship with xeno beasts? Can you explain that one a bit better please, Cara?

A bit unusual for the Astartes but they aren't all like the Dark Angels.

The Prophets have a deeply warlike nature, so much so that, like orks, they live for war. That might sound like an obvious trait for any Space Marine Chapter but I don't see most Chapters making war for war's own sake. It was this nature, corrupted over time by Chaos that turned so many Prophets into the worship of Khorne, a revolt led by the Chaplains (save one) whose zest and zeal for war ironically made them the easiest to turn.

Don't get me wrong the Prophets don't 'like' orks in any friendly sense but they acknowledge and to a certain extent admire their warrior nature. As I say the Prophets see orks as Grod, to use an ork term, orks are their favourite enemy, they have no ulterior motives or secret agendas like the Eldar, they are not mindless eating machines like the tyranids, they are not na´ve and self-righteous like the Tau.

At least that's how many Prophets see it anyway, identifying those elements they respond to within themselves as Astartes as being present in the attitudes of orks and that's why they like fighting them. If the Astartes are created to make war then orks, who are also bred for war, aren't just a good enemy but the perfect enemy.

Oh dear, if D'Nim gets the all clear to enter this RP, you'll be lucky if his head doesn't explode when he realises he's been assigned to work with such perversions of the Astartes' ideal...

I imagine there would be numerous things he might find unsavoury in the character of the Chapter; they don't mind orks because they provide good battles (they intentionally brought orks to Carnate, the Prophets homeworld, deliberately so that recruits would have proper enemies to try and overcome), they eat the brains of their fallen to preserve their memories, half the Chapter turned to the worship of Chaos because of that practice and many of the survivors were mind-wiped and given the memories of the dead and that kind of mass wipe might not even be the first instance as there is evidence to suggest that the Prophets of Hatred is a relatively new name despite the war trophies held by the Chapter dating back thousands of years and the Chapter's only Chaplain that didn't turn to the worship of Khorne might not even be fully human. The Gene-Seed is stable though.

@Koval: Yeah... D'Nim probably won't be as appreciative of being hit around the back of the head as Fabio was.

@Kallidor: No, he wouldn't like that. The Astral Jackals believe very strongly in adherence to ideals. While D'Nim is trained primarily for the purpose of biological purity, that does not mean he'll ignore other forms of (perceived) impurity.

But any such disagreements are going to be half the fun. While the primary purpose of this RP is to have Space Marines kill aliens, the relationships between the Marines shouldn't be forgotten...